Israeli UN Amb: No action on sovereignty before peace plan

'I don't think that we will take any action before the plan is published,' Amb. Danny Danon says of Netanyahu's campaign pledge.

AFP and Arutz Sheva Staff, 18/04/19 08:05

Danny Danon

Flash 90

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not move to follow up on his election pledge to apply sovereignty over Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria before a US peace plan is released, Israel's UN ambassador said Wednesday.

Netanyahu made the promise during the last days of campaigning for the April 9 vote.

"I don't think that we will take any action before the plan is published," Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters about the campaign pledge.

"We will wait. We will see the plan. We will engage and I don't know where it will lead us," he said.

Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is the chief architect of the proposals along with lawyer Jason Greenblatt.

Greenblatt on Wednesday confirmed a Reutersreport saying that Kushner had told a group of world ambassadors that the peace plan would be released after the Muslim month of Ramadan, which ends in early June.

The ambassador said that the proposals' fate hinged not only on the Palestinian Authority (PA) response but also on the reaction of key Arab countries in the region, such as Egypt and Jordan.

"For the last 71 years the Palestinians have always said 'no'. They choose to say 'no' all the time and we expect it will be the same, and after that, I don't know what will be the role of other partners in the region," he said.

From the Israeli perspective, the US initiative should be a "regional plan" to include Egypt, Jordan "and even more countries" to support the process, he added.

Danon said he did not know whether the US plan will call for a Palestinian state, but he said that should not prevent the PA from engaging in talks about the proposals.

"The Palestinians try to get the outcome before entering the dialogue. It doesn't work that way," he said. "It's legitimate to demand and to have expectations, but they want their expectations to be approved before the dialogue."

The PA shut the door on the Trump administration after it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and cut aid to the PA.

Asked what will happen if the US plan fails to gain any traction, Danon said: "We will be where we are today."